Migrants languish in US detention centers amid dire conditions and
prolonged waits
[February 09, 2026]
By GISELA SALOMON
MIAMI (AP) — Felipe Hernandez Espinosa spent 45 days at “ Alligator
Alcatraz,” an immigration holding center in Florida where detainees have
reported worms in their food, toilets that don't flush and overflowing
sewage. Mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere.
For the past five months, the 34-year-old asylum-seeker has been at an
immigration detention camp at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso,
Texas, where two migrants died in January and which has many of the same
conditions, according to human rights groups. Hernandez said he asked to
be returned to Nicaragua but was told he has to see a judge. After
nearly seven months in detention, his hearing was scheduled for Feb. 26.
Prolonged detention has become more common in President Donald Trump's
second term, at least partly because a new policy generally prohibits
immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation
cases wind through backlogged courts. Many, like Hernandez, are prepared
to give up any efforts to stay in the United States.
“I came to this country thinking they would help me, and I’ve been
detained for six months without having committed a crime,” he said in a
phone interview from Fort Bliss. “It is been too long. I am desperate.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement
cannot hold immigrants indefinitely, finding that six months was a
reasonable cap.
With the number of people in ICE detention topping 70,000 for the first
time, 7,252 people had been in custody at least six months in
mid-January, including 79 held for more than two years, according to
agency data. That's more than double the 2,849 who were in ICE custody
at least six months in December 2024, the last full month of Joe Biden's
presidency.
The Trump administration is offering plane fare and $2,600 for people
who leave the country voluntarily. Yet Hernandez and others are told
they can't leave detention until seeing a judge.
Legal advisers warn that these are not isolated cases
The first three detainees that attorney Ana Alicia Huerta met on her
monthly trip to an ICE detention center in McFarland, California, to
offer free legal advice in January said they signed a form agreeing to
leave the United States but were still waiting.
“All are telling me: ‘I don’t understand why I’m here. I’m ready to be
deported,’” said Huerta, a senior attorney at the California
Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “That’s an experience that I’ve
never had before.”
A Chinese man has been held for more than a year without seeing an
immigration judge, even though he told authorities he was ready to be
deported. In the past, Huerta said, she encountered cases like this once
every three or four months.
The Department of Homeland Security did not address questions from The
Associated Press about why more people are being held longer than six
months.
“The conditions are so poor and so bad that people say, ‘I’m going to
give up’,” said Sui Cheng, executive director at Americans for Immigrant
Justice.
The waiting time may depend on the country. Deportations to Mexico are
routine but countries including Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia and Venezuela
have at times resisted accepting deportees.
Among those detained for months are people who have won protection under
the United Nations Convention Against Torture, who cannot be deported to
their home country but may be sent elsewhere.
In the past, those migrants were released and could get a work permit.
Not anymore, said Sarah Houston, managing attorney at Immigrant
Defenders Law Center, who has at least three clients with protection
under the U.N. torture convention who have been in custody for more than
six months. One is from El Salvador, detained for three years. He won
his case in October 2025 but is still in custody in California.
“They’re just holding these people indefinitely,” said Houston, noting
that every 90 days, attorneys request the release of these migrants and
ICE denies those requests. “We’re seeing people who actually win their
immigration cases just languishing in jail.”
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Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed
"Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition
facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee,
Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
The Nicaraguan who wants to be deported
Hernandez, who doesn't have a lawyer, said he signed documents
requesting to be returned to his country or Mexico at least five times.
An Oct. 9 hearing was abruptly canceled without explanation. He waited
months with no news, until early February, when he learned his new
hearing date.
Hernandez, who has allergies and needs a gluten-free diet that he says
he hasn’t been getting since November, was arrested in July on a lunch
break from his job installing power generators in South Florida. His
wife was detained with him but a judge allowed her to return to
Nicaragua without a formal deportation order on Aug. 28.
Both crossed the Mexican border in 2022 and requested asylum. He said he
received death threats after participating in marches against
co-presidents and spouses Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
If he returns, they plan to go to Panama or Spain because they fear for
their lives in Nicaragua, he said. His files say only that his case is
pending.
The Dominican who became a father while in detention
Yashael Almonte Mejia has been detained eight months since the
government sought dismissal of his asylum case in May 2025, said his
aunt, Judith Mejia Lanfranco.
Since then, he has been transferred from a detention center in Florida
to Texas to New Mexico.
In November, Almonte married his pregnant American girlfriend via a
video call and became the father of a daughter he hasn't seen in person.
He was unable to attend the funeral of his sister who died in November.
“He has gone through depression. He has been very bad,” his aunt said.
“He is desperate and he doesn’t even know what’s going to happen.”
Almonte, 29, came to the U.S. in 2024 and told authorities he cannot
return to the Dominican Republic because he fears for his life. In
January, he passed his initial asylum screening interview.
A Mexican man detained for a year
Some detainees are finding relief in federal court.
A Mexican man detained in October 2024 in Florida was held for a year
even though he won a protection under the U.N. torture convention in
March 2025.
“Time was passing and I was desperate, afraid that they would send me to
another country,” said the 38-year-old, who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of being detained again.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen to me,” he said, noting that
immigration officials weren’t giving him any answers.
The man said he had lived illegally in the United States from age 10
until he was deported. In Mexico, he ran his own business, but in 2023
decided to return and illegally crossed the border into the United
States. He said he was looking for safety after being threatened by drug
cartels who demanded monthly payments.
He was taking antidepressants when he found an attorney who filed a
petition in federal court alleging he was being held illegally. He was
freed in October 2025, seven months after a judge ordered his release.
But for Hernandez, the Nicaraguan asylum-seeker, desperation led him to
request to be returned to the country he had fled.
“I’ve experienced a lot of trauma. It’s very difficult,” Hernandez said
from Fort Bliss. “I’m always thinking about when I’m going to get out.”
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